Many attempts have been made to protect container contents from the deleterious effects of both outside elements and from residual chemicals within the container material itself.
Schoettle, U.S. Pat. No. 1,773,064, discloses a cardboard container wherein the inner layer of cardboard is coated with an acid in order to protect the contents of the container from alkaline fumes emitted from the adhesive used in container construction and/or sealing.
Palmer et al, U.S. Pat. No. 1,564,707 and Flynn, U.S. Pat. No. 2,144,453, both relate to packages specifically designed for photographic film. In the former, the wrapping comprising the container is substantially free from sulphur, ammonia, and turpentine. In the latter, there is a black, opaque outer layer and an inner layer which is described only as "inert towards light-sensitive, photographic emulsions". There is no indication as to precisely what materials are used.
Hutter, U.S. Pat. No. 2,534,201 discloses a container having metal corrosion inhibiting characteristics. This is achieved through the use of an inner layer comprised of both an organic amide and an inorganic metal nitrate.
Fox et al, U.S. Pat. No. 2,555,031, discloses a container for storing phosphatic fertilizers for extended periods by coating the inner layer of the container with a lime material.
In the area of archival preservation, i.e. the preservation of papers, photographs, textiles and artifacts of historic, aesthetic or sentimental significance, containers have been historically fabricated from papers developed for the long term preservation of paper documents. However, such containers can have a detrimental effect on their contents. It has been discovered that some archival papers, used to fabricate negative envelopes for the preservation of photographic materials, fail to pass basic silver tarnishing tests (e.g., Collings/Young silver tarnish test). Moreover, some artifacts such as certain textiles and photographic materials require archival containers with conflicting specifications. For example, all generally accepted archival containers available today contain alkaline buffers (almost always CaCO.sub.3) to ward off the effects of atmospheric pollutants and acids or impurities which may migrate from adjacent materials. However, certain textiles such as wool and silk can be harmed by the buffers. Photographic gelatin is stabilized in an acid state and, therefore, it may also be damaged by exposure to alkaline buffers.
The present invention overcomes these disadvantages of the prior archival containers by providing materials for the construction of archival containers so as to achieve maximum permanence without subjecting the stored artifacts to the possibility of any deleterious effects from the buffers found in normal archival boxboard.